W W Burns Sch

W. W. Burns

(Sch.)

W. W. Burns-a wooden-hulled Chesapeake Bay schooner-was acquired by the Navy on 13 August 1861 at Baltimore, Md., for use as a stone-laden blockship. The purchase of W. W. Burns was one of 22 made at Baltimore in the summer of 1861, and she and the other 21 ships were slated to be loaded with stone, taken to the North Carolina coast, and sunk off the entrances to the major inlets leading to North Carolina sounds-Albemarle, Pamlico, and Okracoke. The project was the first of its nature undertaken by the Navy; and, due to delays and other problems, it failed. Some of the ships seem to have remained at their anchorages in Hampton Roads and deteriorated late that summer and into the autumn. W. W. Burns' ultimate fate as part of the first "stone fleet" venture is unrecorded.